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vendredi 4 janvier 2013

A campaigner on behalf of unemployed people has been arrested and
detained in Algeria, amid continuing repression of social and economic
rights activists, Amnesty International said today.

Taher
Belabès was arrested in the southern town of Ouargla on 2 January, after
police dispersed a reportedly peaceful protest that demanded jobs and
the departure of local officials in charge of tackling unemployment.

While
protesters in Algeria are often detained for a few hours and then
released, Belabès is still being held two days after his arrest.
Officials have said Belabès will be charged with “obstructing the flow
of traffic” and “inciting a gathering”, an offence punishable by up to
five years’ imprisonment.

The authorities are increasingly using such charges against people who exercise their legitimate right to peaceful assembly.

“The
authorities should not detain or prosecute peaceful protesters,” said
Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Director for the Middle East and
North Africa. “If Taher Belabès is charged with ‘inciting a gathering’,
this would confirm an increasing trend of judicial harassment of
activists in Algeria,”

Belabès, a co-ordinator for the National
Committee for the Defence of the Rights of the Unemployed (CNDDC), had
already been arrested over previous protests by unemployed people. Other
social and economic rights activists have also been targeted. At least
five, including Abdelkader Kerba of the CNDDC, were charged in 2012 with
offences relating to “inciting a gathering”,

“We believe that
the Algerian authorities are using these charges to intimidate activists
and protesters campaigning against youth unemployment and poverty,”
said Luther.

“Despite the lifting of the state of emergency in
2011, restrictions on the rights to freedom of assembly and expression
are still in place.”

Ouargla is in oil-rich southern Algeria,
where unemployed youth have been mobilizing to demand jobs as several
oil companies operate there.

Algeria has seen protests over poverty, unemployment and corruption increase during the past two years.

Although
Algeria lifted its 31-year state of emergency in 2011 amid region-wide
pro-reform demonstrations, the government continued to ban protests in
the capital, Algiers, and introduced new laws restricting the media and
NGOs.

Algerian civil society groups and human rights activists
continue to suffer threats and harassment from the authorities, and laws
restricting freedom of assembly are still in place.

Amnesty
International has called on the Algerian authorities to repeal or amend
Law No. 91-19 Governing Public Meetings and Demonstrations, which
requires organizers to request authorization eight days before the
event,

The UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and
expression recommended the Law be amended to require notification for
public demonstrations rather than authorization.